Like a virus, the emergency room emergency spreads, and infects the other wards. Policlinico and Brotzu are now full, "in many rooms we had to add beds to accommodate the sick, we are well over 100%", confides a doctor in exchange for anonymity.
The units that deal with emergencies continue to receive 150-160 critical cases every day: patients are "stabilized" and then hospitalized in Orthopedics, Surgery, Cardiology, Neurology and in all other sectors of the hospital, as long as there is space.
The data
The closure of the emergency room of the Santissima Trinità and the prolonged stop of the Marino have blown the bank: all the ambulances arriving from the vast Cagliari area are concentrated between Brotzu and Policlinico. And the access counter is running like never before: both facilities have increased the number of patients admitted to emergency areas by at least 30 percent. Predictable consequence: the Is Mirrionis hospital alone was able to handle over 35,000 cases a year. Which now have to be absorbed by two hospitals.
For emergencies in the hinterland, the health system could count on about 1500 beds in wards for "acute" patients: in recent weeks the capacity has been reduced by 35%, given that between Brotzu and Aou - which last Saturday threatened closure emergency room - it reaches 1,000 beds.
The summit
The health department is dealing with the emergency: the order arrived at Ats is to reopen the doors of the Holy Trinity to 118 ambulances as soon as possible. rather heated - among the commissioners of the health companies involved. The main request is addressed to the local health authority of Cagliari: we work to admit patients who receive first aid in the emergency rooms of the Brotzu and the Polyclinic directly to the departments of the Is Mirrionis hospital.
A flow "that has already begun: we are welcoming patients from other hospitals in surgery, orthopedics and in the medical area," says Sergio Marracini, director of the single unit of the Ats hospitals in Cagliari.
The saturation
Yesterday in the middle of the evening the doctors of the Polyclinic had to face 4 red and 14 yellow codes at the same time. The waiting time jumped to 7 hours. Situation similar to Brotzu: 1 red, 10 yellow and 14 green at the same time. Ambulances in line, as in the days of the first wave of Covid. But now the pandemic can only minimally explain the difficulties of a system that is grappling with structural problems. Which also affects the consistency of the organic.
(Unioneonline)
More details on L'Unione Sarda on newsstands